Fun Links Friday!

As I will be trying to post more content more regularly (since I suddenly don’t have to study in the evenings – can’t even deal with no more obligations after 5pm…), but still find cool links that deserve to be posted, I’m considering doing a weekly round-up like other blogs do – how about on a Friday, in order to get you in the weekend mindset? I’d love your feedback 😉

1. Live in the moment by marveling at the change of seasons captured from space! Nasa has great satellite imagery that show the color changes in foliage in North America. Still waiting for it on this side of the Atlantic…

2. Learn by watching! How It Grows is a new start-up project aiming at ‘agricultural literacy’ and makes fun videos that explain to you how those vegetables really get into your supermarket cart. So far, they have explored and explained cauliflower, garlic, and mushrooms. I have to confess that I learned a lot!

3. The German NGO “Food Watch” gives out a yearly award for the most blatant food advertizing lie called “Der Goldene Windbeutel”, or, translated, “the Golden Cream Puff” (we call somebody a cream puff if they are more pretty exterior than content). The ‘winner’ this year? Nestle and their Alete Meals to Drink for babies – they market it as a complete and healthy meal whereas there is so much sugar in it that pediatricians actually warn that it may lead to overfeeding and caries. Runners up are Knorr Chicken Soup (not containing any actual chicken meat) and Coca Cola’s Glaceau Vitaminwater (“cheap water with added colorants, flavoring substances and superfluous vitamins”).

4. And finally, a new global survey comes up with a fascinating insight on the human psyche: The meal was yesterday, today the snack is the king of sustenance.

Its Nielsen Global Survey of Snacking polled online more than 30,000 consumers in 60 countries between mid-February and mid-March of 2014. Snacking, the study estimates, has evolved into a $374 billion global industry — and is growing about 2% annually, which is a considerable amount in a shaky, global economy.

The impact of the snacking boom will be huge, affecting the way companies make, market and serve food, and it will influence the kinds of food products that food makers concoct going forward, the study concludes.

“Snacking connects consumers globally,” says James Russo, senior vice president at Nielsen. Consider: 91% of consumers polled say they snack at least once a day. And 21% are snacking three to four times daily — the majority being women.

How do you snack? How much did you know about cauliflower? What are you doing this weekend?